Media
Information and entertainment are the two main components and--increasingly--drivers of today’s knowledge-based society. The exchange of data and content is increasingly becoming the basis of societal and business development. These exchanges are largely undertaken by the media. They disseminate information and guide users through the flood resulting from their utilization. The media are our opinion-makers and monitors. Media create interpersonal links and are everyone’s voice to the world. These factors make the media one of the sectors shaping and advancing our knowledge and service-based society. The media’s role is set to become even greater in the years to come.
Bavaria’s media sector is the most important in Germany, and among the leaders in Europe. Bavaria has a position of strength in each of the media’s component industries: print, printing and publishing, TV and radio, film and broadcasting production and dissemination, the Internet, multimedia, and media technologies. Proof of these statements is provided by the fact that 23 of Germany’s 100 largest media companies are headquartered in Bavaria.
With 20% of the total workforce in the sector in Germany and with a large number of worldwide leaders, Bavaria’s print industry is the largest of those of the country’s 16 states.
As the following facts and figures detail, Bavaria is also Germany’s leader in audiovisual media and film production.
- Bavaria accounts for 25% of the radio industry’s gross value added.
- Companies based in Munich account for 40% of the turnover achieved by Germany’s film production industry.
- Munich’s ICT and media industry has an annual turnover of more than EUR 70 billion, and employs more than 250,000 people (counting those on a full-time, social accounts-paying basis). These are by far the largest totals of any metropolitan region in Germany.
As the above details, Bavaria’s media sector is full-range and in-depth. Each working at the forefront of technology, the sector’s companies are active in all of the dedicated chains of media production and dissemination.
Print media:
There are 550 companies--with a total workforce of 51,000--in this industry in Bavaria. Of them, 16,650 are based in Munich, making the city the world’s second largest publisher of books. Number one is New York.
Audiovisual media:
- Bavaria’s radio industry employs some 8,600 people
- Munich is served by some 20 radio and more than 30 TV stations
- More than one third of Germany’s TV channels are headquartered in Bavaria
- Bavaria is home to some 2,000 film production companies. They have some 9,000 employees—equivalent to 23% of the Germany-wide total.
Bavaria’s media community is characterized by the quality, diverse and high technological standard of its offerings. These comprise all links in the chain of production and dissemination.
Bavaria’s media companies are sought-after partners of research and development. The companies work closely with the schools of journalism and of media sciences and business forming part of Bavaria’s institutions of higher education, and with a number of other research facilities.
These institutions and facilities turn out both the innovations and many of highly-qualified and motivated graduates finding employment with the state’s media companies.
Bavaria’s media companies profit from the ties and services provided by the state’s dedicated networks.
Print media
There are four state associations in this area:
- Verband Druck und Medien Bavaria e.V. (printing and media)
- Verband Bayerischer Zeitungsverleger e.V. (publishers of newspapers)
- Verband der Zeitschriftenverlage in Bavaria e.V. (publishers of publications)
- Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels – Landesverband Bavaria e.V. (book publishers)
Other associations and events in this area
- Munich’s Academy of Bavaria’s press
- Bavaria’s media campus
- Munich’s Media Days
Audiovisual media
- Bavarian Film Center and Film Hall, Geiselgasteig (in southern Munich)
- b-neun Media & Technology Center, Unterföhring
- Bavarian Television Academy (BAF), Unterföhring
- International Filmfest Munich
- Munich’s Media Days
- Nuremberg’s conference on locally-based radio broadcasting
- Augsburg’s media roundtables
- Bavaria’s media campus
- Munich is home to such major media companies as Bayerischer Rundfunk (state broadcaster), ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, Premiere, Kabel Deutschland GmbH, Bavaria Film, Tele München group and Sony BMG. Based in the city are also such important publishing houses as Hubert Burda Media, Süddeutscher Verlag, C.H. Beck, Langenscheidt and Random House / Bertelsmann
- Nuremberg: Oschmann group, Schlott-Sebaldus group, Verlag Nuremberger Presse, Fraunhofer IIS
- Augsburg: Weltbild group; WEKA Media, Augsburger Allgemeine, MAN Roland
- Würzburg: Vogel Fachmedien, Main Post, Robert Krick Verlag, König & Bauer
Bavaria has a large number of cities with regional-scope media: Passau (Passauer Neue Presse), Landshut and Straubing (Landshuter Zeitung and Straubinger Tagblatt), Regensburg (Mittelbayerische Zeitung), Bamberg (Fränkischer Tag publishing group), Hof (Frankenpost) and Aschaffenburg (Main-Echo).
Prizes awarded in Bavaria to the media
- Bavarian prize for print media
- Corine international book prize
- Bavarian film prize
- Bavarian television prize
Access to financing
The state of Bavaria has been joined by a large number of players in putting together programs of support facilitating the development of dedicated creators of media:
- FilmFernsehFonds (Fund for film and TV) Bavaria
- Bavarian banks‘ fund
- MEDIA Antenne Munich
- LfA-Förderbank
- Support for the media from the state government
